Journal of Urban History current issue

The Answer to Suburbia: Playboy's Urban Lifestyle

Fraterrigo, E. — 2008-06-04

This article examines images of urban and domestic space that appeared in Playboy magazine in the 1950s and 1960s. It argues that in crafting the bachelor's ideal habitat, Playboy engaged in a popular discourse on changing roles for men and women, transformations in the urban landscape, and a consolidating ethos of consumption. Readers encountered a vision of urban life and domesticity that served as a gendered response to the perceived "feminization" of society and widespread suburbanization while also countering images of urban decline. Playboy's representations of the bachelor pad and the city provide insight into the meanings attached to the evolution of the metropolitan landscape in the postwar period and reveal the cultural foundations for the construction of a masculine identity based on leisure and consumption.

Civic Communication in Britain: A Study of the Municipal Journal c. 1893-1910

Griffiths, J. R. — 2008-06-04

This article examines a journal initially known as London and subsequently the Municipal Journal which was first published in the 1890s. It is argued that this publication deserves closer scrutiny by historians interested in urban progressivism over the approximate period 1890-1910. As the foremost journal for diffusing ideas about the management of cities in this era it offers important insights regarding the successes and failures of the Progressive project in both the British capital and the provincial centers. It is argued that the journal played two important roles in this period. The first was to defend the Progressive agenda from Conservative (Moderate) attack, and the second was to play the role as the "Hansard of local government." The impression left to the historian is that Progressivism as a movement contained internal contradictions which contributed to its demise by 1914.

Reinventing Memories: The Origin and Development of Barcelona's Barri Gotic, 1880-1950

Ganau, J. — 2008-06-04

The heritage and the historical centers of many towns are increasingly presented, and sometimes massively consumed, as theme parks with a historical content. This paper analyzes the long term process involved in the creation of Barcelona's Gothic quarter (Barri Gòtic). This quarter came into being due to the combination of two parallel processes: the conclusion of the cathedral and the redevelopment of the city center. The Barri Gòtic was a conscious creation that was meant to provide the cathedral with a gothic environment and was created by gathering together fragments left over following the demolition of the historic city. It was conceived as a type of avant la lettre historic theme park and was essentially a creation of the mid-twentieth century.

John Merriman: "Cities and Politics in Nineteenth Century France"

Vidal, L., Beriet, G., Haynes, C. — 2008-06-04

Review Essay: Budapest, Past and Present: GABOR GYANI, Identity and the Urban Experience: Fin-de-Siecle Budapest. Translated by Thomas J. DeKornfeld. Boulder, Colorado: Social Science Monographs; Wayne, NJ: Center for Hungarian Studies and Publications; Budapest: Institute of Habsburg History, 2004, ix, pp. 271, notes, index, $40.00 cloth. JUDIT BODNAR, Fin de Millenaire Budapest: Metamorphoses of Urban Life. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 2001, vii, pp. 222, notes, bibliography, index, $35.00 cloth

Vermes, G. — 2008-06-04

Review Essay: Airport History: JANET R. DALY BEDNAREK, America's Airports: Airfield Development, 1918-1947. College Station, TX: Texas A & M University Press, 2001, pp. viii, 226, index, bibliography, notes, illustrations, $39.95 cloth. DAVID T. COURTWRIGHT, Sky as Frontier: Adventure, Aviation, and Empire. College Station, TX: Texas A & M University Press, 2005, x, 284, illustrations, notes, references, index, $60 cloth, $24.95 paper

Breihan, J. R. — 2008-06-04

Review Essay: INTEGRATING EDUCATION HISTORY AND URBAN HISTORY The Politics of Schools and Cities: JACK DOUGHERTY, More Than One Struggle: The Evolution of Black School Reform in Milwaukee. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004, pp. xiii, 253, illustrations, maps, charts, table, notes, bibliography, index, $49.94 cloth, $19.95 paper. ADAM R. NELSON, The Elusive Ideal: Equal Educational Opportunity and the Federal Role in Boston's Public Schools, 1950-1985. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2005, xvii, 332, notes, index, $70.00 cloth, $27.50 paper. DORIS HINSON PIEROTH, Seattle's Women Teachers of the Interwar Years: Shapers of a Livable City. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004, ix, 283, illustrations, bibliography, notes, index, $30.00 cloth. KATE ROUSMANIERE, Citizen Teacher: The Life and Leadership of Margaret Haley. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005, xi. 271, illustrations, notes, bibliographic essay, bibliography, index, $81.50 cloth, $25.95 paper

Rogers, B. L. — 2008-06-04

Review Essay: MODERNITY AND THE MIDDLE EAST Cities and Their Citizens: JENS HANSSEN, Fin De Siecle Beirut: The Making of an Ottoman Provincial Capital. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2005, pp. vi, 307, illustrations, graph, tables, bibliography, index, $95.00 cloth. KEITH DAVID WATENPAUGH, Being Modern in the Middle East : Revolution, Nationalism, Colonialism, and the Arab Middle Class. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006, pp. vii, 325, illustrations, tables, maps, $35.00 cloth. CHRISTA SALAMANDRA, A New Old Damascus: Authenticity and Distinction in Urban Syria. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2004, pp. ix, 199, illustrations, map, bibliography, index, $49.95 cloth, $21.95 paper

Katz, K. — 2008-06-04

Review Essay: Shaping Southern Urban Development and Social Relations: CHARLES E. CONNERLY, "The Most Segregated City in America": City Planning and Civil Rights in Birmingham, 1920-1980. Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press, 2005, xvi, 360, illustrations, notes, index, $45.00 cloth. CHRISTINA GREENE, Our Separate Ways: Women and Black Freedom Movement in Durham, North Carolina. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005, xviii, 366, illustration, notes, bibliography, index, $59.95 cloth, $19.95 paper. DAVID FORT GODSHALK, Veiled Visions: The 1906 Atlanta Race Riot and the Reshaping of American Race Relations. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005, xvi, 365, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index, $59.95 cloth, $22.50 paper. CHRISTOPHER MACGREGOR SCRIBNER, Renewing Birmingham:Federal Funding and the Promise of Change 1929-1979. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2002, pp. xii, 188, notes, bibliography, index, $40.00 cloth

Mantri, S. — 2008-06-04

Review Essay: NEW IN OUR EYES Race, Class, and Progress in New South Atlanta: ANDY AMBROSE, Atlanta: An Illustrated History. Foreword by John Lewis. Athens, GA: Hill Street, 2003, illustrations, maps, resources and suggested reading, index, $18.95 paper. KAREN FERGUSON, Black Politics in New Deal Atlanta. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002, pp. xvi, 366, illustrations, maps, appendix, tables, notes, works cited, index, $49.95 cloth, $19.95 paper. GREGORY MIXON, The Atlanta Riot: Race, Class, and Violence in a New South City. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2005, xv, 197, maps, index, notes, bibliography, $59.95 cloth

Chambliss, J. C. — 2008-06-04

Review Essay: EXPECTING THE UNEXPECTED Black-Jewish History in Twentieth-Century America: V. P. FRANKLIN, NANCY L. GRANT, HAROLD M. KLETNICK, AND GENNA RAE MCNEIL, eds., African Americans and Jews in the Twentieth Century. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1999, vii, pp. 366, footnotes, index, $34.95. ERIC J. SUNDQUIST, Strangers in the Land: Blacks, Jews, Post-Holocaust America. Cambridge and London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005, pp. 645, notes, $35.00 paper

Adams, L. — 2008-06-04